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Where did it go wrong?

Now that you’ve had almost a couple of weeks to think about it, where did it go wrong for the Mets? I’m not asking about the bullpen or their inability to hit with runners in scoring position. I mean, what game in the last two months, what stretch, told you it wouldn’t happen this year?

For me, it was losing two of three to the Braves in home-and-home weekend series. It screamed to me they were in trouble.

It wasn’t one game. It was the stretch when they faced 6 or 7 lefties in a row and Manuel kept Murphy out of the lineup the entire time, and it was around the same time he started playing Castillo again. A reyes wasn’t a star but he had fire and played good d, and Easley hit. Replaced by a crippled guy.

Probably the Houston game August 2nd where Billy Wagner both blew his 7th game and pitched the last of this season and probably next. The Mets did go 18-11 in August but only 13-12 in September. Surely a healthy Wagner would have changed a couple of losses into wins.
Getting nothing from Orlando Hernandez and only 49 at bats from Moises Alou didn’t help. Not unexpected but two months from each of them would have made a difference.
How aboout the second game of the year when Pedro Martinez was injured? April Fool’sDAy against the Marlins. The bullpen actually pitched well although Minaya’s import Matt Wise lost it

Honestly, I was hoping they would pull it off. But it was the bullpen. The fact that if they needed the bullpen we would probably lose the game.
And losing to a team that sucked all year just brought it all home.
Oh well there’s next year!
Lets Go Mets Go!

all off-season we were told (by the players, by the then manager, by the GM, by the CEO’s) that this 2008 version of the mets was going to get the “bad taste” out of our mouths, and prove that they were going to not make the same mistakes that led to the ’07 collapse.

instead we got lifeless, uneven, and uninspired baseball for the first few months of the season.

that the change in manager was able to spark some sort of resurgence made the season more interesting and watchable than it otherwise would have been (but all those lost weeks couldn’t be undone).

and the sad reality was that a “championship” or even playoff caliber baseball team should have been sufficiently embarrassed by the debacle that occurred in Sept. of ’07 to come out of the gate this year eager to prove that they were not a sorry bunch of losers.

I agree with metlady. There are way too many games thi season where the team just blew it. The 6 run lost lead vs the Phils. The Wagner back to back blown saves. The sweep in San Diego. Those all hurt… but that Wednesday night against the Cubs, where the Mets had 3 chances to bring Murphy home was the end of the season for me. Murphy was pumped, the crowd was ecstatic… and then Wright swung at ball 4, Church admitted to not recognizing the situation, and Castro grounded out. I knew right then and there.

It went wrong in the bullpen; it was the problem all season.
29 blown saves is 7 higher then the major league average. If the pen was addressed in the off season of ’07 and the Mets had only 22 blown saves that could equate to 7 possible wins since not all blown saves lead to a loss. If they win 4 or 5 more games we’re not having this conversation.

This thead shows just how many low points there were to the season. In September, the Braves were the worst team in the league. chipper missed a lot of the games against us and he was the only proven hitter they had. Losing those two series while the Phillies feasted on them was the difference.

It was after their Labor Day series against Milwaukee, when they came home to face the Phils with the opportunity to seal the deal — and were instead shut out by Brett Myers. That was the omen of what was to follow.

After the Milwaukee series, the Mets went 10-12 the rest of the way. But if you take Johan Santana out of the equation, their record was only 6-12. More telling, only three Met starters other than Santana recorded wins after the Milwaukee series: One apiece for Perez, Niese and Brandon Knight.

It’s well documented how the bullpen failed — that’s not really in dispute. But it’s worth noting how their other starters fared, beyond Santana and in John Maine’s absence: